WASHINGTON: US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned, US media reported Tuesday, a day after she acknowledged that the agency failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Cheatle was facing bipartisan calls to step down after a 20-year-old gunman wounded the Republican presidential candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Kimberly Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she said in the email to staff Tuesday. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
Also read
- AR-15: Why semi-automatic rifle used by shooter in Trump attack is one of America’s most popular and deadliest guns
- FBI used new Cellebrite software to crack Trump shooter's phone
- Suspected Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks got rejected by school rifle team, his former classmates say
- Who is the 20-year-old Pennsylvania gunman in Trump attack? Watch how the snipers took him down
Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after appeared before a congressional committee and was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the security failures. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades and said she takes full responsibility for the security lapses but angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.
At the hearing Monday, Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she took full responsibility the security lapses. When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded, “No, thank you.”
The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters of the stage where the former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the July 13 rally.
